Hillary Clinton Adviser Who Jokingly Promised ‘Cold, Hard Truth’ Denies Kamala Harris Story

Spokesperson for Hillary Clinton and former State Department staffer Nick Merrill has an interesting job. People are endlessly curious about Mrs. Clinton, of course, with her unique ability to inspire both admiration and its feral opposite in so many anxious American citizens.

In his capacity as Clinton spokesperson, Merrill, who “travelled to 78 countries as a communications advisor to the Secretary of State during the Obama Administration,” has demonstrated a very internet-savvy style of messaging and response that relies on matter-of-fact pointedness and, when possible, humor.

In 2019, for example, replying to assertions in a book that claimed Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign organization had been a circus of dysfunction and a miserable experience for staffers, Merrill employed the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words.

He tweeted sarcastically “Here is the cold, hard truth. Click at your own peril…” while introducing and re-sharing photos that showed a happy candidate and merry staffers, photos that served to refute the claims without repeating them.

.@PhilippeReines, that photo must have been staged.

Here is the cold, hard truth. Click at your own peril… pic.twitter.com/IRLhOX261k

— Nick Merrill (@NickMerrill) April 20, 2017

Mr. Merrill is in the news again today, as he is quoted in a New York Times article which claims that Democrats are largely dissatisfied with the performance of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Few of the discontented go on the record for the article, which asserts that — behind the scenes — many of the most powerful Democrats in the nation believe Harris’s purported underperformance could drag down a Biden-Harris ticket next time around, especially considering the president’s age.

The gossip contains the notion that Hillary Clinton is among those disappointed by Harris’s current profile. As reported by the Times, “two Democrats recalled private conversations in which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lamented that Ms. Harris could not win because she does not have the political instincts to clear a primary field.”

Those two Democrats are not named. In an effort to confirm that Clinton does indeed hold such an opinion about Harris, the Times went to Merrill. Merrill called the idea false, saying: “They have built and maintained a strong bond. Any other characterization is patently false.”